“Historical Perspective: U.S. fertility rates reveal that large families used to be the norm in this country. In 1800, the total U.S. fertility rate was 7.04 children per woman, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 1850, that number had dropped to 5.42, before falling even further to 3.56 in 1900. The U.S. fertility rate continued to decline throughout the first half of the 20th century before rising briefly to 3.53 in 1960. The rate bottomed out at 1.77 in 1980 and has been on a slow rise ever since. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the total U.S. fertility rate for 2009 is 2.05—the same as it was in 2000.”1

Women today are not less “fertile” than they were a hundred and fifty years ago. Women today are simply choosing to have fewer children. The pill and abortions are symptomatic of changing priorities towards work and materialistic goals over the focus on families.  In that sense then, we are seeing a crisis of the family.